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UMKC'S McWOODS, SU'S AUNE NAMED PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Kansas City's Eric McWoods and Seattle U's Nathan Aune have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Aug. 21 - 27.
McWoods, a senior forward from St. Louis (Kirkwood HS), led the WAC in points over the opening weekend of the 2017 season, helping lead the Roos to a pair of season-opening wins. He scored once and assisted on the two other goals in a 3-0 win at Central Arkansas and then scored a late insurance goal in a 2-0 win over Northwestern.
Aune, a senior defender from Arlington, Wash. (Arlington HS), was instrumental in a pair of home shutouts to open the 2017 season. Against Loyola Marymount, he played all 90 minutes in the back and helped to hold the Lions to just four shots in a 1-0 win. On Sunday against 20th-ranked New Mexico, he helped contain the Lobos to just six shots on the night and scored the game-winning goal in the 74th minute to give the Redhawks their 18th-consecutive home win.
Other offensive nominees: Air Force's Tucker Bone scored the Falcons' first goal in a 3-2 win over 23rd-ranked Florida Gulf Coast … UIW's Marjan Gamsjaeger headed in the game-winner off a set piece in the first overtime to give the Cardinals a 2-1 win at Central Arkansas … UNLV's Danny Musovski scored a goal to tie the game in the first half and assisted on the second equalizer in an eventual 3-2 double-overtime win at Portland … Utah Valley's Connor Salmon provided the long ball on the Wolverines' winning goal to earn the assist in a 1-0 win over 16th-ranked Akron.
Other defensive nominees: Air Force's Trey Pujats helped the Falcons secure a pair of home wins to open the 2017 season, also earning an assist in Sunday's win over Florida Gulf Coast … UIW's Brendan Brown allowed two goals with an .857 save percentage as the Cardinals went 1-1 on the road to open the season … Kansas City's Filippo Errico posted a pair of shutouts in goal as UMKC opened the season with back-to-back wins over Central Arkansas and Northwestern … Utah Valley's Giovanny Vazquez scored on a header in the 54th minute to give the Wolverines a 1-0 win over Akron on opening night.
UP NEXT
Week two brings another tough schedule with a number of tough games at home and on the road. On Friday night, UNLV makes the trip to Albuquerque to take on New Mexico while 2016 NCAA tournament participant CSUN travels to No. 18 Utah Valley for a matchup on the WAC Digital Network. Also on Friday is Houston Baptist opening the season against 21st-ranked Omaha at UTRGV and No. 25 Seattle U travels to Portland for a rivalry matchup in the Rose City. Following a lone game on Saturday with Grand Canyon traveling to Wisconsin, the action continues Sunday with Kansas City trying to stay undefeated with a home match against Rutgers while UT Rio Grande Valley will look for a top-25 win over Omaha.
ON THE MAP
After a strong opening weekend, the voters of the national polls took notice. Utah Valley sits 14th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and Soccer America Top 25 and 18th in the College Soccer News Top 30 and United Soccer Coaches Top 25. UNLV is 17th in the TDS Top 25, 25th in the SA Top 25 and is among those receiving votes in the CSN Top 30 and Coaches Top 25. Seattle U slidinto both the CSN Top 30 (23) and Coaches Top 25 (25) after shutout wins over Loyola Marymount and New Mexico. Air Force is also among those receiving votes in the Coaches Top 25.
UPSET CITY
The WAC opened up the 2017 season with five matches against teams ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 and picked up three wins while falling in double-overtime in a fourth. Utah Valley earned a 1-0 win over 16th-ranked Akron on Friday night. Air Force outlasted 23rd-ranked Florida Gulf Coast, 3-2, on Sunday while Seattle U extended its 18-match home winning streak with a 1-0 win over 20th-ranked New Mexico. Grand Canyon played 14th-ranked Creighton tough in Omaha before falling 1-0 in double-overtime.
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE
Seattle U's 1-0 win over 20th-ranked New Mexico on Aug. 27 was the Redhawks' 18th-straight home win, which leads the nation. Former WAC member Denver has the second longest streak at 14 games following a win over Akron on Monday night.
GIVE THE FANS WHAT THEY CAME TO SEE
The 4,351 fans that showed up at Clyde Field on opening night to watch Utah Valley defeat Akron, 1-0, is the fourth-largest crowd in NCAA Division I men's soccer this season and it gives UVU the early lead in national attendance. UNLV also played in front of a large crowd on opening night as 4,385 fans game to Merlo Field to see the Rebels knock off host Portland, 3-2, in double overtime.
WASHED OUT
The anticipated arrival of Hurricane Harvey cancelled last week's HBU Invitational, which was set to feature Houston Baptist and UT Rio Grande Valley taking on Gonzaga and Bradley. Both HBU and UTRGV will now open this season this weekend in Edinburg where they will take on Omaha and St. Bonaventure at the Rio Grande Valley Invitational.
BEST IN THE WEST
The WAC makes up half of the United Soccer Coaches West Regional Ranking. Utah Valley is the top WAC school at number two. Air Force is fifth, Seattle U is sixth and UNLV is seventh while CSU Bakersfield rounds out the poll in tenth.
UNLV PICKED TO WIN 2017 TITLE
UNLV is the preseason favorite to win the 2017 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer title in a vote of the league's 11 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.
The Rebels collected five first place votes and 90 total points to take the top spot. Defending regular season champion Utah Valley earned three first place votes and was just a point back at 89 to earn the second spot while Seattle U earned the remaining three first place votes to total 87 points for third. 2016 tournament finalist Air Force was picked fourth with 72 points followed closely by Grand Canyon in fifth with 70 points. CSU Bakersfield was sixth with 54 points and San José State was selected seventh, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley in eighth and UIW in ninth. Houston Baptist and Kansas City tied for 10th to round out the poll.
AUNE, MUSOVSKI HIGHLIGHT PRESEASON ALL-WAC SQUAD
UNLV forward Danny Musovski and Seattle U defender Nathan Aune were selected as WAC Preseason Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's 11 head coaches, who could not vote for their own players.
Musovski is joined on the Preseason All-WAC squad by midfielder teammate Timo Mehlich while Aune is joined by midfielder teammate Sergio Rivas. Air Force has three players as forward Austin Dewing, midfielder Tucker Bone and goalkeeper John Wendt were all honored. Utah Valley had a pair selected as forward Paul Hoffmeister joined defender Giovanny Vazquez on the squad. Grand Canyon forward Niki Jackson and CSU Bakersfield defender Jamie Carey-Morrell rounded out the 11-member team.
THREE NAMED TO MAC HERMANN WATCH LIST
Utah Valley's Paul Hoffmeister, Grand Canyon's Niki Jackson and UNLV's Danny Musovski are among those on the watch list for the 2017 Missouri Athletic Club's (MAC) Hermann Trophy. Hoffmeister was a third-team All-American as a junior, Jackson was the 2016 WAC Offensive Player of the Year and Musovski earned 2016 WAC Tournament MVP honors.
HOFFMEISTER, MUSOVSKI NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA
A pair of WAC men's soccer players will open the year as preseason All-Americans as Utah Valley's Paul Hoffmeister was named a first team selection and UNLV's Danny Musovski earned second team honors by College Soccer News. The duo was also named to the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XII Third Team.
READY TO ROLL
After playing through a four-year transition period to NCAA Division I, both Grand Canyon and UIW are eligible for the postseason this year. The Lopes are predicted to finish fifth in the regular season while the Cardinals are ninth in the preseason coaches poll.
LUCKY SEVEN
With all 11 men's soccer teams eligible for the postseason in 2017, the WAC tournament field has expanded from six teams to seven teams. The tournament also added an extra rest day between the first round and semifinal round. The regular season champion and top seed will receive the only bye in the tournament, with the other teams beginning play on Wednesday, Nov. 8 in Las Vegas. Semifinals will be played on Friday, Nov. 10 with the championship game set for 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12.
PLAYING THE BEST
The WAC has 23 non-conference games against participants from the 2016 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament. UNLV, a 2016 postseason participant itself, is one of three schools to play four NCAA participats, making trips to Portland, New Mexico and UCLA and hosting Pacific. Utah Valley has four non-conference matches against postseason participants, hosting Akron and CSUN and traveling to San Diego State and Washington. Seattle U also has four with home games against New Mexico, Mercer and Washington and a road trip to Portland. San José State opens the season hosting defending national champion Stanford and will travel to both CSUN and Pacific. Grand Canyon will travel to Creighton and Pacific and host CSUN. UT Rio Grande Valley takes on Loyola Chicago on a neutral field at Northern Illinois before returning home to take on San Diego State later in the season. UIW will also face San Diego State in Edinburg. Air Force takes on Florida Gulf Coast at home while CSU Bakersfield travels to Pacific.
COMING SOON
California Baptist is scheduled to join the WAC for 2018-2019 competition. They will begin their four year transition process to Division 1. This will make them ineligible to compete in post season tournaments (WAC and NCAA) until 2022-2023 season. They will be coming from the Pacific West Conference where they won five championships (M&W Cross Country, W. Basketball, W. Golf, and Softball) during 2016-2017 season.
ON THE AIR
The WAC Digital Network will broadcast 88 regular season games and all six games of the expanded 2017 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament in Las Vegas.